# Festivals and Events in Japan | Japan Voyage Travel

- [Tsuchiura Fireworks](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/festivals/tsuchiura-fireworks): Ibaraki, Held on the first Saturday of November. The autumn half of Japan's national fireworks competition, held in November when the air is clearer.
- [Awaji Island Festival Fireworks](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/festivals/awajishima-matsuri-fireworks): Hyogo, Held in early November, over Ohama beach in Sumoto. About four thousand shells over Ohama beach in Sumoto, held in November rather than midsummer.
- [Koedo Kawagoe Fireworks](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/festivals/koedo-kawagoe-fireworks): Saitama, Held in late August for most of its history; the 2026 edition moved to November. Kawagoe's own display, about 6,500 shells over a riverside park half an hour from the old merchant street.
- [Chichibu Yomatsuri](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/festivals/chichibu-yomatsuri): Saitama, Held every year on 2 and 3 December, with the floats moving on the night of the 3rd. Lantern-hung floats hauled up a steep slope on a winter night, with fireworks overhead. One of very few December festivals.
- [Comiket](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/festivals/comiket): Tokyo, Held twice a year, in mid-August and late December. The winter session runs to the end of the year. Twice a year, hundreds of thousands of people fill Tokyo Big Sight to buy comics made by the people selling them.
- [Wakakusa Yamayaki](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/festivals/wakakusa-yamayaki): Nara, The fourth Saturday in January. There is no rain date: light rain and it goes ahead, bad weather and it is called off that morning, so keep the trip flexible. The dry grass on a whole hillside above Nara is burned off after dark, with fireworks first. One of the few big festivals in deep winter.
- [Sapporo Snow Festival](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/festivals/sapporo-snow-festival): Hokkaido, Held every year in early February, usually for eight days. Eight days of large snow and ice sculpture in central Sapporo, spread across the Odori, Susukino and Tsudome sites.
- [Yokote Kamakura Snow Festival](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/festivals/yokote-kamakura-snow-festival): Akita, Held every year on 15 and 16 February. Around a hundred snow huts across Yokote, each with a candle and children inside offering sweet amazake.
- [Omizutori](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/festivals/omizutori): Nara, 1 to 14 March every year. The largest torches are on the night of 12 March, and the water drawing itself happens in the small hours of the 13th. Monks run burning cedar torches along the balcony of Nigatsu-do every evening for a fortnight, showering sparks on the crowd below. It has been held every year since 752.
- [RubyKaigi](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/festivals/rubykaigi): Three days in spring, usually April or May. The dates and the city are announced roughly a year ahead. The international conference for the Ruby language, held in Japan over three days each spring. The host city changes every year.
- [Takayama Matsuri](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/festivals/takayama-matsuri): Gifu, Two separate festivals each year: the Sanno Matsuri on 14 and 15 April, and the Hachiman Matsuri on 9 and 10 October. Carved and lacquered floats with marionettes, paraded through Takayama in April and again in October.
- [Sanja Matsuri](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/festivals/sanja-matsuri): Tokyo, The Friday to Sunday around the third Saturday in May. The shrine's own three mikoshi go out early on the Sunday. Around a hundred portable shrines are carried through Asakusa over three days in May, by teams who shout and shove rather than process. Tokyo's loudest festival.
- [Aoi Matsuri](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/festivals/aoi-matsuri): Kyoto, Held every year on 15 May. Five hundred people in Heian court dress walk from the Imperial Palace to the Kamo shrines, every 15 May.
- [Gion Matsuri](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/festivals/gion-matsuri): Kyoto, Held every July, with the two float processions on 17 and 24 July. A whole month of rituals at Yasaka Shrine, built around two float processions on 17 and 24 July.
- [Hakata Gion Yamakasa](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/festivals/hakata-gion-yamakasa): Fukuoka, Held every year from 1 to 15 July, with the final race at dawn on the 15th. Two weeks of ritual in Fukuoka that end with teams racing one-tonne floats through the streets at 4:59 in the morning.
- [Tenjin Matsuri](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/festivals/tenjin-matsuri): Osaka, Held every year on 24 and 25 July, with the river procession on the evening of the 25th. Two days at Osaka Tenmangu that end with a hundred boats on the Okawa river and fireworks overhead.
- [Sumida River Fireworks](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/festivals/sumida-river-fireworks): Tokyo, Held on the last Saturday of July. Tokyo's oldest fireworks display, traced to 1733, fired from two sites along the river near Asakusa.
- [Hirosaki Neputa Matsuri](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/festivals/hirosaki-neputa-matsuri): Aomori, Held every year from 1 to 7 August. Fan-shaped lanterns with a warrior scene on the front and a quieter figure on the back, paraded through Hirosaki in early August.
- [Aomori Nebuta Matsuri](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/festivals/aomori-nebuta-matsuri): Aomori, Held every year from 2 to 7 August. Huge illuminated warrior floats pushed through Aomori every August, with dancers running alongside.
- [Nagaoka Fireworks](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/festivals/nagaoka-fireworks): Niigata, Held every year on 2 and 3 August. A memorial as much as a spectacle, fired over the Shinano river on 2 and 3 August every year.
- [Akita Kanto Matsuri](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/festivals/akita-kanto-matsuri): Akita, Held every year from 3 to 6 August. Poles hung with dozens of lit lanterns, balanced on palms, foreheads and hips along a closed street in Akita.
- [Sendai Tanabata Matsuri](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/festivals/sendai-tanabata-matsuri): Miyagi, Held every year from 6 to 8 August. Thousands of handmade paper decorations hung the length of Sendai's covered shopping streets for three days in August.
- [Awa Odori](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/festivals/awa-odori): Tokushima, Held every year from 12 to 15 August. Japan's largest dance festival, when around a hundred thousand dancers take over Tokushima for four nights in August.
- [Lake Suwa Fireworks](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/festivals/suwako-fireworks): Nagano, Held every year on 15 August. Fired from the lake itself, ringed by mountains that throw the sound back across the water.

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Source: [Festivals and Events in Japan | Japan Voyage Travel](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/festivals?page=1)
Last updated: 2026-10-20